EDDE 806 - Post V - The final one of the spring 2016 season

A couple of weeks after the last session of 806 for this spring aired I had an opportunity to observe the proceedings from across time and space (aren't recordings grand?). Looking at the (small) crowd that attended the live session maybe I should have attended! Anyway! It does should like next fall, or perhaps next spring once I am formally in 806, there might be a ton of people attending,

EDDE 806 - Post III - Presented by Musical Interlude!

Some nice artwork, no doubt by @merryspaniel :-)Time just seems to fly by this semester. I don't know if it's because I am busy, or if (as the old saying goes) time flies when you're having fun!This past week we skipped the usual introductions and check-ins in 806, affectionately known by some as the therapy portion to the live session. I actually didn't mind it considering that this is

Half-way there! Mid-semester tired thoughts.

Well, in addition to being Back to the Future Day (you know, October 21, 2015), I noticed that my count-down on my phone is telling me that it is also exactly mid-semester! We have completed 44 days of coursework and there are 44 more days to go! EDDE803 is progressing smoothly I would say, the internship in MDDE 620 is still pretty interesting, and the forums there are quite active. I

How to teach swarming?

The other day I came across a post on someone's blog on group work, and I saw this funny (but true, at least to most of my experiences) graphic on group work. One of the soft skills required to graduate in the MEd program I teach in is to be able to demonstrate the ability to work with others on projects and joint efforts. This is quite broad as it doesn't specify whether someone is cooperating

Instructor Personality and its role in education

Continuing on my quest for 'inbox zero' for Pocket, here is another interesting post that deals with the personality of the instructor in the teaching and learning endeavor. There are actually two interesting strands here, one that deals with the instructor themselves, and one that deals with material creation. I'll tackle the material creation first as I find that this is what piqued my initial

Some closing thoughts on EDDE 802

Snowed in? Reading about Research?Here's a badge for you!I suspect that this won't be the last post on my blog with the EDDE 802 label, but for the purposes of a final assignment in 802 this is my reflective last post for the course. EDDE 802 was fun, but it was a challenge. The content wasn't as challenging as the framing: being placed in the role of an impartial researcher, with a specific

Derby Wharf, Salem, MA - Jan 2015 (Storm: Juno)I am sure that last one is a word I just made up on the spot. It's been a slow week in 802. I was reading Lisa's reflection on Lurking in 802 (she is in last year's cohort, so she is two courses ahead of us in Cohort 7), and how she viewed 802 at the time as a make or break experience for the Ed.D. program. While 801 last semester was a whirlwind

First semester done!

Hurray!The first semester of my doctoral studies is done! Well, it was done last week, but as I wrote in the previous post (on #dalmooc) it's been one crazy semester. I had hoped that I would blog once a week on the topic of EDDE 801, getting some interesting nuggets of information each week to share , but between MOOC like #ccourses, work, and regular EDDE 801 work, no such luck.

DALMOOC episode 8: Bureau of pre-learning

I see a lot of WTF behavior from learners. This is bad... or is it?Oh hey! It's week 6 in DALMOOC and I am actually "on time" this time! Even if I weren't it's perfectly OK since there are cohorts starting all throughout the duration of the MOOC (or so I suspect), so whoever is reading this: Hello!This week the topic of DALMOOC is looking at behavior detectors (types of prediction models).

Active Co-Learning

I took a small hiatus from Connected Courses in the last module because everything sort of piled on at the same time and I had little space to breathe. Yes, I've been dalmoocing, so I guess everything is a choice ;-). I guess that was my jump-out week of connected courses, and now I am dipping in again. I love the language of cMOOCs ;-) The truth is that I've felt a little fatigued

MOOCs in a nutshell (assignment for class)

One of the things that has been keeping me busy this semester has been my inaugural semester as a Doctoral student at Athabasca University's Center for Distance Education. The semester isn't over yet,but I am slowly working at hammering out some assignments for the course. I've tried to be pro-active so that I can get the foundational reading done early in the semester so I can focus on

Continuing with my exploration of DALMOOC, we've reached the end of Week 2 (only a few days late ;-) ). I've been playing with Tableau, which I can describe as Pivot Tables on steroids. I briefly explored the idea of getting some IPEDS data to mess around with, however that proved to be a bit more challenging than I had anticipated. So, I ended up using the sample data of course evaluations

DALMOOC, episode 1: In the beginning

Alright, I guess it's time to start really committing some braincells (and time) to DALMOOC, the Data, Analytics, and Learning MOOC that started last week on EdX. I wasn't going to attend this MOOC, to be honest about it, but seeing that George Siemens was behind this, I knew that there was an experimental aspect to it. Learning analytics is not new to me, my first MOOC (cMOOC) in fact was LAK11

WWW literacies and the importance of self archiving

Here we are, week 2 of module 3 (so week 6) and half-way through the formal run of connected courses. I spent most of last week catching up with stuff that was piling up in my Pocket account from previous weeks. In all honesty I wasn't quite sure what to make of this module. Pretty much all of the things that were readings failed to spark my imagination, given that I had either read similar

Un-Fathom-Able!

Some Friday homework posted here. I was listening to Audrey Watters's keynote address at CETIS a few weeks ago and I thought this would make some good material for thinking and a critique - so here it is. Your thoughts?Watters, A. (2014, June). Un-Fathom-able: The Hidden History of Ed-Tech. Keynote presented at the 2014 Center for Educational Technology, Interoperability and Standards

Random article critique - Head of Gold, Feet of Clay

I suppose that it's not quite random, it's actually part of the work I am doing for my first doctoral course. That said, I thought I would post this here (now that its been submitted) to see if others have read this particular article and what they think :)Power, T., & Morven-Gould, A. (2011). Head of gold, feet of clay: The online learning paradox. The International Review Of Research In

On Network Fluency

On the web, not one knows you are a ____________ (fill in the blank). Connecting with the previous elements of trust, I am continuing my opening exploration of this module's second topic: Network Fluency. The introductory chat is available as a YouTube video, and the discussion is on the topic of Social Capital and Personal Learning Networks.This subject of Network Fluency (or Network Literacy

Thoughts on teaching - provoked by Connected Courses

Wow, it's not even Wednesday noon (half-way through week 1 of module 1) in Connected Courses and the feed is buzzing with the title (and/or #whyiteach). Quite interesting. Lots of things saved to pocket. I will most likely read through them this weekend ;-) In any case, I joked on twitter earlier that I should write a post on why I don't teach (who knows, this post may evolve

Ask why five times

Good ol' Zoidberg asking WhyBack when I was an MBA student, probably in a project management class, we were told that we should ask "why" five times in order to come to the root cause of the problem (I wonder why this is why kids seem to keep asking "why" incessantly ;-) ). It thus seems quite a propos that the first formal week (two weeks actually!) of Connected Courses are focused on Why we need

New Month, new MOOCs, new learning, more grazing?

September is here! New academic year has begun, the campus is again full of life (and lacking parking), and I am back to school as a student, this time at Athabasca University! I am also looking forward to a number of MOOCs that are beginning this month, among them Connected Courses, which promises to be an interesting cMOOC. Perhaps I am insulting the course by calling it a MOOC (MOOCs

Of Cohorts and Residential Requirements

Back in Boston! I was off to Edmonton last week for my doctoral program orientation at Athabasca University. The orientation is a formal part of the first course (EDDE 801) and it is a requirement. Not attending the orientation means not being the program. Those who know me on campus know that I am not a fan of cohorts, and I don't like residential requirements, so it might seem illogical

Educational Based Research - Part 1

Well, in a week I will be in Edmonton starting off my EdD in distance education at Athabasca University. I know that most North American doctoral students probably don't think of their dissertation topic this early (I haven't even completed my first course), but I want to be pro-active and work on the thing while taking courses. So, Rebecca's post on Educational Design Research (EDR) was